Let me clear things out for you, jeffbean.
The option to associate a billable expense to a recurring invoice isn't available. What we're going to do is manually add the billable expense to your customer's invoice.
Just a heads up, we'll have to manually send the transaction to your customer.
Let me guide you with these steps:
- From the + New button, select Bill.
- Go to the Item details section.
- Add a PRODUCT/SERVICE, RATE, and AMOUNT.
- Tick the BILLABLE column.
- Select a customer in the CUSTOMER / PROJECT field.
- Click Save and close.
Afterward, you're good to link it to an invoice.
- Click Invoice from the + New button.
- Select the same customer in the Customer drop-down.
- Enter your Customer email.
- In the Add to invoice page, find the billable expense we've created earlier.
- Click Add.
- Select Save and send.
In case your customer wants to pay the invoice online, you can send an online invoice. Here's an article for more information: Take and process payments.
Feel free to get back to me if there's anything that I can help. Keep safe!
@Adrian_A thank you for the response.
You've said that "The option to associate a billable expense to a recurring invoice isn't available." If you mean to say a billable expense can't be automatically placed on a recurring invoice, that's wrong. QBO did automatically add the billable expense to the invoice generated by the recurring invoice. In that sense, QBO did, in fact, "associate" the billable expense with a recurring invoice.
The problem is that QBO added the billable expense to the invoice without providing me the opportunity to enter other information that is necessary (most importantly, a Product/Service description). As was established earlier in this thread, QBO could allow me to enter that information when the billable expense is initially booked, but it doesn't.
What I then asked is if there's a way I can get to the invoice to add that necessary information to the billable expense before the invoice is sent? In response, it appears your solution is to create yet another invoice, separate from the recurring invoice and, presumably, send it before the recurring invoice. That's simply not a satisfactory solution. It requires that I either a) send the client two invoices that could/should be one, or b) send them just one manually, and somehow cancel the recurring invoice. Either way, the recurring invoice function becomes worse than useless because it creates more process in my workflow and also a significant source of error.
Am I missing something?
At this point it appears that, though QBO's Recurring Invoice function is able to associate billable expenses, it is unable to do so correctly, thereby creating extra work and a source of error. It's not ready for prime time. The solution is not to use it.
